First-time house renovation

ukmaggie45

Andy, sorry to hear about your OH's scary time. Vertigo is horrid. My sympathy to your OH, and tell her to be careful walking - I find using a walking stick helps as you can place it to make a tripod to lean on if you suddenly feel worse and as if you're going to fall over. But here's hoping she feels much better very soon.

andrew-b wrote: »

Maggie your house is really coming on now...will look like a new house by the time it's done! The old and new looks like it's going to all blend together nicely. I hate to think what your spending on it but sure it will be worth waiting for!

It'll practically be a new house by the time we're done! New extension, new roof, new wiring, new plaster, all new concrete downstairs floors, new extended porch (if we actually end up doing it), new bathroom, kitchen, central heating, windows, 2 lots of bifold doors.... Aaarrrggghhh it would have been cheaper to demolish the lot and start from scratch! :eek:

Basically practically all of what I inherited from my parents is going on this house. If it hadn't been for all the suggestions I received from the Over 50s section of this forum on Probate and associated problems we would never have been able to buy this house and renovate and extend it. So a thousand thanks to Martin Lewis for setting up the MSE Forums, :beer: :j :money: without which my life would be very different!

Cost has escalated as we've gone on I'm afraid. Originally we weren't going to replace the whole roof, but when roofer saw it he reckoned it'd need doing in the next 10 years or so, so we thought it better to get it over and done with rather than face disruption like that when we're in our 70s. We're also trying to "age-proof" as much as possible too, hence the downstairs shower room - for when we can't manage to get up the stairs! :eek:

OH went over to the house around lunchtime, and took more photos. I'll stick them up in a separate post later if I get time.

We've decided I'll go to Harrogate tomorrow too, how well I'll cope I'm not sure, but at least we've got the wheel chair to use. If it puts me in bed for a week after it'll probably still be worth it. There's a couple of stands from people who do glass staircases, so really want to go and see them!

It'll be fun to have a day out, it's ages since I've gone anywhere further than Birkenhead! :rotfl:

A few fireworks beginning to go off now, and at 7.30 we'll hear the strains of the fireworks in the park. Just checked the council website, and it's a 20 minute show "orchestrated to the theme of 'Feel Good Factor' music". Looks like the rain might have stopped, so maybe OH will trot down to watch if we've finished tea in time.

ukmaggie45

Photos as promised earlier, as usual clicky for bigger ones.

Here's the view from the front on Guy Fawkes day. Windows being washed.


Front of house on Guy Fawkes Day 2010 by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

This is taken from in front of our neighbour's house. You can see most of the side of the house.


Front and side by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Living room as it is at present.


Living room looking from back to front by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Living Room. We intend to put a "counter" along the whole of the wall below the 3 double sockets for computers and associated hardware.

It looks a bit odd from this angle, the darker grey vertical about 1/3 across the photo from the left is actually the edge of the opening between the back part of the living room and the front part. Extreme left you are looking through into the hall, with that diagonal wallpaper. The paler grey area to right of the darker grey is where the door into front part of living room has been blocked off.

Photo looks more like a piece of abstract art than something that is really there! :rotfl:


Living room by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Diner area of kitchen - those curly white pipes are for water to go behind kitchen cabinets and feed through into the shower room for the wash basin.


Diner area of kitchen from kitchen area by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Edges on ceiling plaster in master bedroom begin to take shape. I love the way the curves on the ceiling are meeting together. :j The door opens onto the landing, plasterer is working on the bit that used to be a window and now will be a display area for some of my "stuff" as OH calls my china etc.


Edges on ceiling plaster in master bedroom begin to take shape by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Front part of extension bedroom. You can see the metal former going round the room to form the plaster lip.


Front part of extension bedroom by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Back part of extension bedroom. Shows how the entrance comes from landing step into room. Well, not very clearly.


Back part of extension bedroom by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Landing and light tube from extension bedroom. Light tube still just dangling, but is bringing in lotsa light! :j This is looking out of the entrance to the room you can see in the previous photo.


Landing and light tube from extension bedroom by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

stolt

looks really good maggie, some work gone in there, builders seem to be a excellent job with plenty of progress, plus i havent seen you mentioning any problems....

been a while since i uploaded some pics..... thought i'd stick whatever was still on my camera.


Got some of the wallpapering of the lounge (still got to get some venetian blinds for there)

dog tired took the kids swimming this morning and and got back about 11am to start taking the old kitchen out (someone coming to collect it tomorrow) didnt think i would get it all done, but the only casualty was the sink unit, it was so rotten that i couldnt save it.
Managed to get some fireworks off for the girls aswell, now chilling with a rum and coke can only just i cant keep my eyes open....

Electrican came today with the new kitchen receiver, so the lights up, just waiting for replacemnt kitchen doors from italy and they normally take 4-5 weeks so were in th kitchen, had our dinner in there tonight.... feels weird we havent had a dinning table for 4+years.... going to take some getting use to... got to work out the underfloor heating now aswell...

latecomer

@maggie - I think its going to look fantastic once its finished. And they are making great progress too.

@stolt - looking good too and those pumpkins are fantastic

@andy - hope OH feels better soon.


I spent the morning painting the inside of the shed - or trying to. As its rough wood it takes a lot of time to get it painted. Was meant to be painting the last bits on the outside but it had to be over 5 degrees and I didn't think it was. Then spent the majority of the day with little LC had a nice walk and then went shopping. TRied to do some scraping in the dining room tonight but only managed about 30 mins before needed to come help with little one as he's been really windy tonight.. Finally just got him settled down a coupe of mins ago so thats the end of that. We've got inlaws coming over tomorrow to see little one and I've got them bringing some boxes of ours from their shed as we are being quite ruthless at clearing stuff out of the boxes that come out the dining room so hopefully we'll be able to continue with it.

Was also hoping to get more painting done on the shed tomorrow but its been heavy rain for a couple of hours so thats probably unlikely. I'm hoping one of the boxes that the inlaws bring will have my left over coax cable from when I installed the TV point as I need to put in the new one in the back room and I'm sure there is more than enough cable left over but I cant find it here. Would be great to get that done along with the new socket but will need to see how we get on. Also going to finish off screwing up the plasterboard on the ceiling in the dining room as FIL is bringing his big cordless drill.

latecomer

spent yesterday clearing up and then when the inlaws arrived we got lots more to sort out! But in return they took away 3 of the unused kitchen units and are going to try and use them in their kitchen once the extension is done. They are definintely going to use the curved drawer unit which I'm really glad about as it was far too expensive to not be used and the 1000mm base unit which is great. put about 5 boxes of stuff out in the new shed to clear some of the garage for the boiler work to be done tomorrow.

Also solved a minor mystery too. When I got home on friday night there was a few pieces of white stuff around the front door - looked like polystyrene but I didn't look too closely. There was a small gap between the new soffits and wall where some render had come off when we removed the asbestos soffits and when I thought about it I guessed it might be a little of the cavity insulation (overflow thats sitting in the eaves) blown out in the gales. Yesterday saw one of the flock of birds that have been around the front garden recently (I've looked them up and think they might be house sparrows but need a closer look) sitting on the window cill. didn't seem too bother by me watching and then flew to the front door and hung on to the side of the house for a few seconds before shooting up into the roof via this small hole and reappeared a few seconds later with some of the insulation

After we'd emptied and filled the inlaws car (truck ) I got FIL to hold ladders while I put in some concrete and then a length of 2"x1" to fully seal the gap. That will stop them getting in there but I'll need to check round the rest of the soffits to see if there are any other areas that might suffer from the same problem. If so I'll probably get some cement colouring as I'm sure the dark grey will stand out like a sore thumb Also means I've got more painting to do!

Then after all this I had to finish screwing up the plasterboard. Was using FILs cordless drill but its a 24v Bosch and weighs a lot. And the screws were 5" to get through the plasterboard, plaster, lathe, cross-battons and then finally into the joists. Took a fair bit of pressure and that combined with working above head level meant my shoulder was knackered by the end of it. And I couldn't stop as I didn't FIL to take over as he's got a dodgy shoulder but he would have done some regardless so just had to keep going.

Need to do a little more clearing of the garage tonight as the guy who's doing the drains phoned to confirm that he'll be there on tuesday to get the drains tested and also do all the work on the boiler. I'll get him to fit the new controls while he's at it as it shouldn't take him long (he was baffled why the previous "plumber" hadn't done it as in his words - "just about any idiot can fit them" ) and he's budgetted to be there most of the day anyway.

Spicey

Andy- hope OH feels better soon.

Stolt - Did you do the pumpkins, very good. House looking good too.

Maggie - Alot of work gone on, looks very good.

Didnt do much this weekend as OH had exam to do. But managed to fit loft ladder and reverse hatch. With the christmas rush thing- OH says loft, bathroom and kitchen will be completed by christmas:rotfl:

latecomer

Sounds ambitious - I've revised my plan such that the only things that will be complete by Christmas are things being done by others. I'm planning on doing as much as possible in the free time gifted to me by little LC (who will be known as LLC from now on to cut down on typing ).

That way anything that gets done will be a bonus :rotfl:

stolt

Spicey wrote: »

Andy- hope OH feels better soon.

Stolt - Did you do the pumpkins, very good. House looking good too.

/QUOTE]

yes i spent all afternoon doing them, i came over all arty and for anyone that knows me, i'm one of those artists that knows what he wants but just cant draw it but for some reason i can do pumpkins.....

Update on mine, the ebay people came and collected the old kitchen, managed to get it all out in one day, amazed myself, spent yesterday taking tiles off.... impossible job when they are stuck to plasterbaord, so the plasterboard will have to be patched up.... got another electric shock yesterday, probably my fifth over the last two weeks as I broke the socket in the wall...
We had a roast with our new ovens, missus undercooked the beef, but shes blaming the ovens and shes not use to them yet!

Bumblebee123

Hello Stolt

I was wondering whether I could be very cheeky and ask where you got your coloured pendants from?

Thanks

stolt

Bumblebee123 wrote: »

Hello Stolt

I was wondering whether I could be very cheeky and ask where you got your coloured pendants from?

Thanks

I'll aslk the missus as I havent a clue lol you searched for days on the net for those..... will text her at home, I think it might have been a german website but thye were fine for delivery etc.